1990s

During the creation of the history for the Galactic Civilizations universe a number of stories are assembled regarding the earliest days. These become known as Elemental: Guardians of the Telenanth, Elemental: Mascrinthus & Draginol, and Elemental: Destiny’s Sentinel

Early 2000s

Stardock attempts to license Master of Magic from Atari to create a Master of Magic 2. Negotiations stall over legal requirements.

2006

Galactic Civilizations II is a hit, team starts to get serious about the design of “not-MOM”.

2007

War of Magic: Design 1

Design 1 was essentially Master of Magic + Dynasty System + Multiplayer

2008

Sins of a Solar Empire released

2009

Core WOM team refocused to help on Demigod. After launch, team revisits where War of Magic is a 1Q2010 release still hoped for.

War of Magic Design 2 is created. Cost of having significantly different (i.e. different body types) and having player designed units beyond budget. Two main humanoid styles chosen (Men and Fallen) with the different races fitting into those styles.

2010

Full studio is now on WOM but the new game engine (Kumquat) has limited particle effects support and memory management.

War of Magic Design 3 is created. Economic and terrain system is simplified. Control of resources is now key to victory. City building is streamlined.

Release of War of Magic v1.0. Kumquat proves unstable on various hardware configurations and just plain buggy. Reviews of WOM are mixed. Stardock and its fans very unhappy. Sales are initially strong but end up lower than GalCiv II or Sins or Demigod.

Release of Destiny’s Embers (book) is more favorable, sales are good.

Stardock brings in veteran designers and producers to focus on a “super expansion pack”

2011

Fallen Enchantress moves from being an expansion to being a sequel.

Fallen Enchantress moves a lot closer to the original WOM concept (Design 1) where terrain and city building matter a lot more, magic matters a lot more, and units and their abilities matter a lot more. System opened up so that the different factions can be made far more diverse (whether that’ll be in FE or an expansion to it depends on budget). Everything is XML’fied for more extensive modding.

To be continued…